s 



.Tillliir. ..iiiftir :iiill!liiir. Jilk aulfllur.^niUllk. :iiilllk iillt!lk :iii1ll!tiir. Jittiir luftiir 3iil!!liiir .niJl!!k jdflliti; Jiilllk Ar .T«i8jj£ 



ill •. I I I f I I I I 1 == 



PRACTICAL 



ifc. 



Tile Draining 



FOR FARMERS. 



J: A HAND BOOK OF INFORMATION ON ALL SUB- 
• JECTS RELATING TO TILE DRAINING. 



4: EMBRACING IN ITS TREATISE NEW AND VALUABLE 
1 FEATURES IN TILE DJiAINING. 



^- 



ASI^L^JS^D, OHIO: 

D. W, AVise, r*ublislaer. 

1891, 



^1^ 



^?, I I J ■ I I I ■iii:iiiiii|ii|i<iii|n|"|ii|ntJ'i<rii'|ii|ii|ii|i>|ii|ii|n|liili|i'|l|||i|li|l'l <|:i|::|<:| '|i'|n|i'|:i|iTJ!'|l'|i'|:||i|||i|:i|''& 



Class 
Book 




Copyright}!^. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



PRACTICAL 



Tile Draining 



FOR FARMERS. ^V ^ 

A HAND BOOK OF INFORMATION ON ALL SUB- 
JECTS RELATING TO TILE DRAINING. 



t».^sIV 



EMBRACING IX ITS TREATISE NEW AND VALUABLE 
FEATURES IN TILE DRAINING. 



.•J 



^SHL^lS^r), OHIO: 

D„ IT". ^Wise, Fxal^Iislier. 

h I.' 1891. 



4^Cc 



COPYRIGHTED 1891, BY 
D. F. WISE. 



r; \ 



A 



'^. 



\4^^ 



PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 



In placing this little volume before the public, 
it is my object to not only set forth why we 
should tile drain, but also the best means to em- 
ploy to get perfect drainage of all lands needing 
it. 

BENEFITS OF TILE DRAINING. 

In truth we may say that tiling is the leaven 
that leaveneth the soil into which it is placed. 
Tile draws the water from the soil much quicker 
than if the same ditch in which the tile was placed 
was left open. The water seems to draw towards 
the tile, as if by suction. Not only is it 
drawn to the tile, but its weight forces it down 
to the tile, and the smoother the tile is, the bet- 
ter will be the effect of the tile's working. There- 
fore you should, first of all, secure the best and 
smoothest tile possible; and if your best tile 
have rough spots in them, make a chisel out of 
an old file and cut all the rough spots out of 
them. Rough spots obstruct much of the flow 
of water by causing the tile to fill up. You must 
guard a,gainst this if you want a perfect drain. 

Now, when tile w^ork to their full effect they 
lower the water level to the bottom of the tile, 



4: PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

and cause a basin for water that lias a slope 
from the bottom of the tile outward to the sur- 
face of the soil from ten to one hundred feet from 
the drain. Say your tile are three feet deep, then 
the capacity of the basin would be about nine 
times as much as if they were one foot deep ; and 
about two and a fourth times as much as if they 
were two feet deep. 

Now do not understand that this is a dug- out 
basin. It is a basin of soil which is drained and 
loose and has all the unnecessary water remov- 
ed from it by the tile. 

Now look right here ! When a heavy rain falls 
that basin must first fill before the crop can be 
flooded, while the tile is lowering the water much 
faster than any open draining can do. The 
benefits of tiling are here shown still greater. As 
the water filters into the tile, it leaves all of its 
fertility in the soil, instead of washing it away 
on the surface, as there is no other way for sur- 
face drains to act. Tile, by being an outlet or 
a great filter, as we may term it, loosens the 
soil so that a man accustomed to walking over 
tiled land can tell the moment he comes upon it. 
The loose, spongy condition of the soil is his 
guide. It is like a living soil, in pure health, 
with mighty vigor. The crops never fail to tell 
the story in large capitals, in the shape of mighty 
growths of grain and grasses. Let me say here 
that your cattle will eat the grass closer right 
over your tile drain than at any other place in 



BENEFITS OF TILE DRAINING. 5 

the same condition before tiling. If they do not, 
it is simply because you don't let them into the 
field, or the tile is not put in properly, and they 
may not find the location of the tiled land. If 
your tiling is done properly and your cattle do 
not find the locality of the tile after it has been 
dowQ a sufficient length of time to be in fair 
working order, an i do not prefer the tiled pas- 
ture to the untiled, 1 will refund you all that you 
have invested in this work. This fact has been 
fully demonstrated on my own tile drains. So I 
have nothing to fear in making you the offer. 

Some people say only wet land is suited to 
stock. I know of farms that would feed one-half 
more stock if they were tiled, only through the 
swales and swamps, as they constitute about 
one-fourth of such farms. Think of the gain. It 
would increase the producing value of the farming 
land of this country from one-third to one-half 
more than it already is. If 3'ou want to raise 
wheat in many instances j^ou get about ten bush- 
els against three before it was tiled. You will 
also be pleased if you plant corn, as it will make 
the best crop that you are able to produce on 
your farm, and potatoes grow luxuriantly. A 
swamp that is loose and loamy will make you 
the finest potatoes that you ever ate, of 
the common variety that you have planted, and 
the best varieties are simply most excellent in 
quality. 

In 1889, I cleared up the last swamp that I had 



6 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

on my farm, and planted it in potatoes the 16th 
day of June, as I conld not get the brush out 
and tiled sooner. After tiling I plowed it, but 
did not get a very good job done as there were 
many alder roots to bother me. Hence I did 
not get the potatoes in in good shape. But they 
still yielded me one hundred bushels to the acre,. 
Avorth fifty dollars. They more than paid me 
for clearing up that swamp and tiling, and the 
next year that swamp was in better condition 
for potatoes. I planted it in new Improved 
Neshannock potatoes and it gave me a yield of 
about three hundred bushels to the acre, for 
which I realized one dollar and ten cents per 
bushel, in the market, as they are of very superi- 
or quality. Now take the one acre of potatoes 
for the last two years, and compare with my 
wheat from ten acres for the last two years. The 
yield was twenty-one bushels per acre. That 
would make four hundred and twenty bushels in 
two years, at seventy-five cents per bushel. We 
have three hundred and fifteen dollars for wheat 
on the ten acres for two years. For potatoes I 
have three hundred and fifty dollars on one acre 
in two years, and no threshers' bill to deduct. 
Now tell me ! Would it not have been over five 
hundred fold better to have that swamp tiled 
than to let it remain with its brush to mar my 
farm and let the fifty dollars that it cost me per 
acre be taxed and bring me no interest ? I am 
fully convinced that it is five hundred fold better 



BENEFITS OF TILE DRAINING. 7 

than to let it lie worse than idle and still stands 
out as a target for taxes. I was poor when I 
commenced on this farm, and seeing the large 
swamps in several fields I took them first and 
have kept to the work as I best could, having had 
t^^phoid fever along Avith the other things to con- 
tend against. I am thankful to say that I have 
at last mastered the last swamp, and did it in 
the sixth year and am truthfully glad to say that 
they all repaid me for the work done in the sec- 
ond crop, reserving half of the crop for labor of 
cultivating. The last swamp repaid me the first 
year. 

I say to you, do not let those swamps keep you 
from farming the balance of your farm to the 
best advantage, but tile your swamps and add 
the best acres to your arable land . As long as 
they produce weeds and brushes they are not 
yours, but belong to thefrogs, lizards and toads, 
and you are fool enough to pay tax on what be- 
longs to them, besides, swamps are very detri- 
mental to health and it don't look as though 
you cared if the world moved or not. All you 
have to do is to wake up and tile it. Tiling is 
not such hard work nor is it just so very un- 
healthy either, as I am none of the healthiest 
and I am more at ease in a tile drain ditch 
than I am at splitting wood. I can better regu- 
late the work of spading than I can at splitting 
wood, as I sometimes get a very hard stick that 
gives me some very hard mauling to do. 



8 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

You should always see to laying your tile so 
that it is done right. There is no kid glove style 
that is any good in tiling. You must take hold 
if you want the best results, and it is a work that 
will last a life time if done right. It will be a 
pleasure to reflect upon. But if done half way, 
why you curse your own work or allow your la- 
borers to curse it for you. There is no Avork 
that pays so well for well doing as tile draining 
well done. Why it helps you every day in the 
Spring. It has your soil warm and dry so you 
can get to work early and get your crops out in 
time to have the start of the season. We should 
here remember the old saying, "That the early 
hen catches the bug." Your crops grow right 
along in full vigor-. 

Tiling helps you to make your crops b.y cul- 
ture, as you can cultivate at the right time, as I 
said before, just as soon as you can after a rain. 
Tihng helps to bring the soil into the right con- 
dition to do the right kind of cultivation. 

Last of all, tiling helps to make your soil 
moist in a dry time. Thus it helps to ripen your 
crop perfectly. It helps to nmture you a perfect 
crop and the best crop your land will produce, 
as wet land if tiled, is in the best condition 
for culture and is then the richest of your soils. 
Why? Because you tiled it right. It will pro- 
duce the best of corn, wheat, oats, grass and hay 
that your farm will produce. Just think of it. 
It will help your hny to dry as the soil under 



BENEFITS OF TILE DRAINING. 9 

your mown grass is in the best condition for the 
drying- of your grass. You will need less fertiliz- 
er as you have the best of your farm producing 
crops to make manure to enrich the poorer parts 
of your land. Remember right here to apply 
your manure to higher lands of your farm and 
the drainage will naturally carry it to the lower 
parts of your farm, especially if it should over- 
flow a little at times. Thus 3^ou can even the 
soil condition of your farm. 

Tiling will do 3^our soul good, as it will bring 
you a luxuriant, golden harvest. Who can help 
but rejoice at the golden harvest? As it is the 
golden harvest we have in view, let it be in the 
field, shop or within the office or college, store or 
bank. Why have hard times on the farm? Why 
grow poor crops every year on wet land? when 
you can grow the best of crops on all of your land 
and rejoice at the golden harvest, instead of hav- 
ing the blues, because you have only been able to 
farm half of your soil and that half not worked 
half, because there was a bed of water in the field, 
or in other Avords, a bed of mud that kept much 
of the field planted too wet to cultivate. Thus 
the weeds get the start of you and take the fer- 
tility of your soil and rob the crop. That fertili- 
ty will not be of any use to that crop though you 
are able to kill all the weeds. And you cannot 
make manure of them in time for the crop they 
have robbed. 

Thus if you neglect to tile your land you will 



10 PRACTICAL TILE DKAINING. 

have hard times at first, because you can get 
more from such laud well tiled; yes, enough 
more, often, to pay for your tile drain, and have 
as much left as your crop amounted to. You 
can do more to remove hard times thap if you 
sit on the fence and talk tariff reform or plead 
for reduction of taxes, or if you get into apoliti- 
cal quarrel about something that you know 
practically nothing about. Or if you did, you 
might be on the other side. Sometimes some 
farmers think they must control money making 
by legislation and never try to do anything but 
growl at others' mistakes, saying I do not make 
such mistakes and would be ashamed of making 
such mistakes. Why do they never make such 
mistakes? Simply because they have become a 
chronic set of lounging growlers always and for- 
ever dissatisfied, simply because they do noth- 
ing. If they w^ould improve half of the time they 
lounge away they would then have more rest 
then they need and be happier men ; and their 
women would enjoy themselves better. I know 
of no other way that such farmers can take than 
to tile their farms, instead of wasting their time 
in worse than useless hitching up and driving to 
town once, twice or even three or four times a 
week, when they have no business in town, except 
simply to hear the talk of the slums and to 
drink the polluting liquors, and be degraded- and 
drag wife, children and friends down to degrada- 
tion. Let me here say to you, stay at home; 



BENEFITS OF TILE DRAINING. 11 

drain your farm ; help yourself to comfort ; let 
your wife enjoy your company; and enjoy the 
comforts of life, as you promised to remain 
faithful to her in all adversity. It is your duty 
to make home the best of homes ; and to do this 
you must make surroundings to serve you to 
their utmost. To do this you must tile drain 
all laud that retains too much water or holds 
water on its surface. If you have but a small lot 
the more important it is to you that its produc- 
ting capacity is the greatest that can be made, 
for then you will see that a little wel 1 done re- 
pays much better than much hg^lf done ; and it 
will prove a joy and comfort to you. 

Those who have large tracts of land can stand 
it better in one sense, and in the other not. In 
the first sense the^^ may have enough to do them 
and lay by some without tiling ; but if this is the. 
case, should they have any license to compel poor 
men to work their land on half pay and spoil 
their farms by letting cattle tramp them into 
mortar beds, simply because they are too stingy 
to buy tile and drain their farms? No. 

In the second sense their farms return them 
poor interest for capital invested, and taxes paid 
thereon. I for one say, tile your land ; but don't 
run in debt for both land and tile and expect to 
make much headway in paying up from the pro- 
ceeds of the farm, as the interest and debt may 
be too much for you to manage. If the farm is 
large, you may do this on quite a small piece if 



12 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

you purchase cheap enough, so that you can see 
your Avay out b}^ some other way than from the 
proceeds of your land alone. But if you are 
close to some good market you may easily find 
your way oat by producing the vegetables that 
are in demand at all times in that market. 

TO FIND THE DEPTH AND GRADE FOR DRAINS. 

How eJiall I find the depth to whichi can grade 
my ditch? The way I find how deep I can go is 
by using a carpenter's level. The first thing you 
do is to place the level on the bottom of a nail 
keg, turned bottom side up. Shift this keg till 
your level shows that it rests level. Then look 
over the top of the level at some object at some 
distance and have some one to mark the point 
you looked to when looking over the level. 
Then turn your level and look from the other 
end of the level. Look to see that the spirits 
show level and if upon looking over your level 
it points to the same place it did in the first 
place then your level is correct. 

Now take a ten-foot pole and a rule, also your 
level and your nail keg, and proceed to the place 
that you want to place your drain. If 3^ou start 
at the upper end you set your nail keg at some 
spot to start that is on a fair level with the land 
all around it. Lay your level on the keg then 
shift your keg until it is level. You must bear 
in mind to have your level pointing down stream. 
Then measure the height of your nail keg and 



THE DEPTH AND GRADE FOR DRAINS. 13 

level, then have some one to take the ten-foot 
pole and start down the course of your drain to 
some suitable spot. Look over your level and 
have him to mark where the top of your level 
points to. Then take your nail keg' and level 
and go and set it directly over the place where 
the pole was set, then take the differ-ence of the 
point marked on the pole and the height of the 
nail keg and level and if it is marked above the 
level of the keg and level that will be the fall you 
will have in that distance. Continue thus until 
you reach the outlet, making a record every 
time you level and take the measurements, in 
which wa}^ you can easily determine the possible 
fall you may have. 

Now to tell you just what fall you should have 
would do some an injustice. But if I could do 
no better I would run a tile for eighty rods on a 
level, if I could then get even a two foot outlet 
that is two feet below the surface. You will see 
that the water would press down two feet all 
along that tile drain and I could see no difficulty 
in such a drain working well if made of smooth 
and uniform tile. I should prefer the best glazed 
tile for such purposes, as they would offer less 
resistance to the flow of the water. 

But do not understand me to say this is de- 
sirable. It will do under the pressure of circum- 
stances. 1 would prefer one inch to the rod, but 
that can not always be had. 



14 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

DRAINING SWAMPS. 

There is also such a thing as draining a swamp 
that seems to be in a deep basin, b}' drilling 
down through the hard-pan into the ground or 
sand bed below and filling the holes with tile or 
gravel to allow the water to go down. But tile 
let down will do better, as tile can be run to 
them, then, or you may make more holes by 
drilling to the sand bed below* and till them with 
gravel. Sometimes you can drain by digging 
into the hill and strike the gravel bed. Several 
feet in such a gravel bed would be sufficient by 
laying tile back from there into the swamp. 

Here let me sa^-^, if you drill the holes in the 
swamp to reach the gravel bed for drainage, 
you can protect them from filling up, by digging 
a trench about the hole several feet long and 
about sixteen inches wide. Here make a brick 
trunk, close up by inserting tile in several places 
to admit the tile branches to be constructed. 
Remember to make the trunks with solid bot- 
tom but use no mortar in making your trunk, 
and cover it deep. 

Practically all land having no deep gravel bed 
in direct connection with the surface soil should 
be under-drained with tile. Such soils many 
times hold water in them too long, thus causing 
imperfect growth of our best cultivated plants. 
They first become root-drowned, and the roots 
stay on top of the soil, and when the water dries 
up, the soil around the roots becomes so 



DRAINING SWAMPS. 15 

compact that the plant starves for the want of 
soil airing' if not broken up with cultivation. 
There are practically speaking only a few plants 
that we generally cultivate during their growth, 
as most of our land is generally in wheat, oats, 
barley, flax, rye, or grass ; and if we are desirous 
to succeed fully and satisfactorily we must tile 
all such wet land, as then it will be but a short 
time until we can cultivate our crops after a 
rain. The sooner the cultivating is done after 
rains, but not in mud, the better for the growing- 
crops ; as the cultivating breaks the crust of the 
soil and allows the air to act on the loosened 
part of the ground, which then acts as a mulch 
or covering of anything that will keep the soil 
from breaking up or cracking apart, and cramp- 
ing the roots in air tight blocks of clay. 

Tiling in this case helps you to air the roots 
of your plants that they may grow. The loos- 
ened coat on top helps to hold sufficient mois- 
ture and store nitrogen from the air, as air 
passes through the loosened soil to the tile be- 
low. Manure or the fertility of the soil is not 
lost by the evaporation of water from the soil 
as the cultivated surface acts as a blanket keep- 
ing the temperature even. 

Again I say that tiling well done, helps to save 
your crops from drowning out; saves the 
ammonia of the rain water as it passes 
down to the tile ; saves the ammonia 
of manure and of the soil; stores nitrogen 



16 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

in the soil by the soil being kept cover- 
ed with the natural grasses instead of Aveeds 
that simply rob the soil as the slovenly, thought- 
less farmer or the stingy miser who seeks to 
take off only and make no returns to his soil. 
Greed, in this case, often cannot see that treat- 
ing the farm intelligently pays. It cannot see a 
return of interest and principal unless secured by 
ironclad notes and cutthroat mortgages. 

Tiling makes you less weeds to rob your soil 
of its fertility, as it gives you a chance to cul- 
tivate your soil in time to kill the weeds. Tiling 
also helps to pulverize your soil so that weeds 
will not spring up from the clods that could not 
be pulverized on underdrained soil. Also weed's 
seed require quite an amount of water to make 
them germinate. This they get on all land that 
is flat and not tiled, while on tiled land the seed 
of weeds do not get watersoaked and do not 
spring up by millions. 

We should drain all soils that can be made to 
bring a fair crop by tiling. I would not advise 
to drain large flats of very poor clay soil, as it 
requires on such soil a very expensive net work 
to tile them. But if you think that you can 
better your soil enough to produce profitable 
crops, which you can easily and cheaply deter- 
mine by draining a few acres as a test, then 
drain all ; but mind and have good outlets and 
perfect grades before laying your tile. Then you 
can prove what tile will do and only then. 



DRAINING SWAMPS. 17 

Please remember that I said that I would not 
tile drain very large fiats of poor clay soil. But 
if they are small ones don't let them mar your 
farm. Drain them as they ma,y be rich in el- 
ements of fertility when opened to the air with 
tile. Some of the large flats of supposed clay 
soil may be rich in elements of fertility when 
opened to the air with tile. These large 
flats of supposed clay soil may be rich in the el- 
ements of fertility when made dry enough that 
they will bring crops, or as soil should be to 
bring crops. But let me here state that in many 
cases it would be cheaper to buy a farm in a 
good state of fertility than to drain a very poor 
clay farm. 

Do not understand that I say, by any means, 
high prices. There are many farms sold at 
moderate prices that naturally have good soil. 
Such farms that have once produced good crops 
but now fail because of having been v/rongly 
treated, and are still being treated the same, 
these farms may have a few wet spots, winter 
springs or swales or sloughs that you may 
profitably drain, and .then you can raise good 
crops on those places and the rest of your land 
can be brought up by raising clover to cover 
your ground, thus forming a mulch for the re- 
taining of nitrogen or the storing of nitrogen 
from the air ; also holding the ammonia of the 
soil under the bed of leaves with which the soil 
will be covered from a well set crop of clover. 



18 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

Do not, if you want the good of your clover, let 
timothy grow up and devour all that the clover 
has done for 3'ou, and make the soil stiff and 
poor as many do, thinking that the clover runs 
out and the timodiy does not. Your soil will 
run out in timothy, but can be restored with 
clover. Remember that clover only lives until 
it produces its seed and then dies. It is with 
but few exceptions found dead at the end of the 
second year. Then is the time to turn it under, 
as then you get the good of the roots, of their 
fertility also. The more of the tops you plow 
under the better, as then you leave your soil in 
a good condition for the following crop. But 
do not think that you can raise three or four 
crops before you return clover to it again. But 
get it back to wheat as soon as jou can so that 
you get it in clover again. Sow your clover 
early and plenty of it; also some timothy at 
the same time, or a little earher. Then Avhen 
you have a good set of clover do not turn in 
your stock to gnaw it down to the ground, 
thinking the great mistake as many do, that if 
it grows nice that it is a dead loss if your stock 
does not get it to eat. But I say to you let 
that clover grow up some, but before the weeds 
get much of a start take your mower and mow 
stubble, weeds and all down to the ground, and 
the stubble, weeds and clover leaves, all help to 
mulch the ground and keep your soil from dry- 
ing. If you do this you will see your clover make 



DRAINING SvVAMPS. 19 

a- thick set of leaves, spreadiug out over the 
ground. It feels good, as you have killed many 
•of its robbers and many of your robbers — that 
is, the weeds. Your clover gets what the weeds 
will take and grows strong and stalky instead 
of puny and spindling stuff, as when choked and 
robbed by weeds. 

If your clover should grow too rank, as it 
does sometimes, you can mow it down again, 
but not as low as it was the first time. Never 
let your stock gnaw your land brown and bare, 
if it is farming land, as such soil becomes hard 
and poor by such treatment. Properly speak- 
ing, it is the way all soils are impoverished and 
•even tiled land, tramped, don't drain well or 
half drain. Why I sp^ak of clover as I do, is 
because it not only enriches your soil and loos- 
ens it, but helps to drain your soil — helps tile to 
drain by loosening up the soil. Take this into 
strong consideration, that land, where clover 
can never be made to keep a good stand on ac- 
count of constantly freezing out, must tile or 
you can never reclaim it. 

HOW TO DO TILING. 

The first thing in starting a tile drain is to 
have a short spade with which you can cut from 
•eight to nine inches deep. In makino- this first 
cutting, 3' ou must grade your fall, as then you 
€an use the water with the least work to level 
your ditch if you clean your ditch as you go and 



20 PRACTICAL TILE DKAINING.' 

make a perfect even bottom in it, so that the 
water flows evenly and freely. You can then use a 
narrow, round pointed spade, the shape of 3^our 
tile. Use this spade as a measure. It should be 
an eighteen inch spade and if you will put your 
spade down the same depth every time, the bot- 
tom of vour ditch will have an even oTade. 
Clean it out often and be sure that your work is 
right. Do not make a lot of ditch and leave it 
open, but always lay tile in all yoar finished 
ditch as soon as done. Then no rain can hurt 
your ditch, nor an}' thing else happen it. If you 
cover your tile and shut the end tile with a 
brick, then no mud can be w^ashed into it. 

The first opening or grading should always be 
done somewhat considerable ahead of the last 
spading. Go ahead far enough so you may be 
sure that 3^ou can go a good depth along your 
ditch. But if you have rooty land, that is new 
ground, you want a square pointed 
spade, as a round pointed spade will 
not cut roots. If you have no tile scoop and 
have an old crosscut saw blade, take it to the 
blacksmith, remembering to have your pieces 
cut as long as yonr tile, but better fourteen 
inches long, than just the length of your tile, 
aiid take a tile along and have him bend it 
around or half way around your tile. 

You should get an iron fastened inside of the 
scoop and at one end so 3^ou have the use of the 
scoop. Fasten this iron in a good strong fork 



HOW TO DO TILING. 21 

handle in such a shape that you can stand on 
top of the ditch while cleanino; it out. It is not 
necessary to ^et in the ditch and muddy 3^our- 
self if your scoop is set at the ri^ht angle; and 
it is not near so hard work as to cramp your- 
self in a narrow ditch, besides avoiding the 
wetting and muddying of your clothes. 

Then your scoops will make a ditch in which 
your tile, if rightly laid cannot move or be 
moved. Round tile are the best as they make 
the best fits. Tile should fit closely and don't 
you let any holes in the bottom of your tile. 
Always turn them up and cover them with 
pieces of tile. Just so sure as 3"ou let a hole in 
the bottom of your tile drain the first crab that 
comes up the drain will go down that hole and 
fill your tile ; be sure that you leave no gaping 
cracks between tile, but cover them with pieces 
of tile or pieces of crocks, dishes, jugs or flat 
stones. When you have this done cover your 
tile. Eight here let me tell you, not to throw in 
the clay or mud that you took from the bottom 
of the ditch, but spade down lightly of the top 
soil to fill 3'our ditch a little more than half full 
before you put that in the ditch which was in the 
bottom. This insures you the best drainage j^ou 
€an get. I made the mistake long ago of put- 
ting the soil on top and that which I took from 
•the bottom in the bottom again, and tile three 
feet deep did not remove the water at some 
places for two days after a rain. That bottom 



22 P RACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

mud sometimes seals your tile. It did so in' my 
case. 

Some are in the habit of putting straw on the 
tile first ; this is useless, and when covered with 
stickj^ clay makes it still worse than useless 
Straw still helps to seal your tile as it packs 
down on the tile still Avorse. I have hauled 
gravel and put a load into the ditch at intervals 
so as to get surface water from heavy rains to 
reach the tile sooner. Another advantage you 
have in filling your drains with gravel is that 
you can always know where your tile is if you 
want to make new branches. The best way is 
to haul a load where you may want to make 
your branches and slightly hill it up. The best 
thing you can do if your swale is liable to wash, 
is to use gravel and make a dam across your 
swale that will prevent washing. 

Should you wish to drain a deep slough that 
is subject to deep washes, you must then make 
large dams of stone often enough to keep tile 
from being washed out. This depends on the 
amount of fall there is in the slough and you 
must make trunks above those dams to receive 
the water more freely. These should be made of 
brick and the bottom of the trunk should be on 
a level with the tile. Yoii should remember that 
there must be a solid bottom in these trunks as 
the crabs might work mud into the trunks.* 
Slate or cistern cement would do on the bottom. 
Then start and build your trunk of brick, say 



HOW TO DO TILING. 23 

several feet loiif>:. As you build it, cut j^our 
brick at each end so that the tile will fit in as a 
stove-pipe does into a chimney. Build your 
trunk several bricks high, leaving enough space 
between the side walls so that it will hold sever- 
al times the amount of water the tile does. 
Cover the top of the trunks by laying on bricks. 
If they reach an inch or more on the side walls it 
will be enough if they are good strong brick. A 
double layer on top would do better, if it comes 
near to plow depth. But with the stone dam 
below, the wash will soon cover your brick still 
deeper^ The object of this brick trunk in a tile 
drain is to let the water into the drain much 
faster than it otherwise could be done. Gravel 
put above the dam on the brick would still be 
an improvement on the drainage. 

Another advantage to be gained in the trunks 
is similar to letting air into the upper bung of a 
barrel when the lower one is open, causing the 
water to escape in full flow. Thus the tile will 
flow to their fullest capacity. 

Brick trunks should be made where tile passes 
through a basin where water lies in for any 
length of time. They will air the drain and 
cause the w^ater to flow much sooner than it 
would otherwise. This, Avith a gravel covering 
would be of much value in winter when the or- 
dinary soil is sealed with frost. 

If you have had your tile properly laid and 
you find that there is such a clay bed that it 



24 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

does not admit of ^ood drainage the brick 
trunk is what you must, resort to, unless you 
can get gravel to make frequent water draws. 

DRAINING HOLLOWS. 

In draining hollows that are liable to much 
wash at every flood when the ground is in cult- 
ivated crops, there will always be trouble from 
tile wa^shing out, or all the soil being washed 
away which is in those sloughs or hollows ; and 
also the fertility of the wash from the hills or 
watershed that flows into the hollows. I will 
tell you, that unless you have the stone dam, you 
can not avoid the trouble of flood washes when- 
ever the swales are plowed up. But there is still, 
I think, in many cases another way that will an- 
swer equally well to tiling. That is to plow^ up 
those hollows and take a road grader and grade 
them so as to be of an equal width everywhere 
from the center. That will leave you a nice and 
wide water-course in the center of your hollow. 
This can be made very easy if you commence to 
plow on the outside at an equal distance from 
the center of the hollow. Thus you will have 
a wide furrow to start \^'ith and if you roll 
and harrow the ground several times before you 
commence to use the road grader, you can do 
much better grading. Now after you have 
graded the swale, you should make short stakes 
of boards and drive them into the ground across 
it. Drive them clear into the ground and close 



DRAINING HOLLOWS. 25 

together, so that the water cannot wash deeper. 
If you follow up the hollow and drive stakes oft- 
en enough your hollow will have to stay as you 
left it, and to protect the sides drive several 
stakes into the plowed ground deep as is nec- 
essary to get a very firm hold. Then take 
boards and sink them down on the up stream 
side of the stakes. Sink them down as deep as 
the level of the ground. Nail them to the stakes 
so they cannot be washed out. If you have not 
the boards, other timber may do, but should be 
several thicknesses. Place all the dirt taken out 
to place timbers, on the upper side of timbers or 
boards, tramp it very sohd, as it is the solidity 
upon which work depends. Now when 3^ou have 
gone up your hollow and driven stakes in the 
center and made your side wings, often enough, 
as in this case you must use your own judgment 
as no rule can be given as fall varies so much, 
and even in the same hollow. 

Now you are prepared to sow your land in 
some crop suited to sow grass with. But don't 
spare the grass seed. Sow clover, timothy and 
red-top very thick and you will be sure to get a 
set of grass, and that will insure you one of the 
best meadows on your farm, and it will be in 
such condition that you can drive in and mow 
it with your mower, if you have taken the proper 
caution to grade your ground properly. You 
then have a wide, even swale that will not 
wash easily and cannot wash if you drove 



26 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

yonr stakes right, and made good side wings. 
Thus 3^ou can use your mower to mow those 
sloughs even if your field is in wheat or corn or 
oats. I mean to leave the swales for meadow 
instead of plowing them up, and you will find 
them the best of meadows, and you will not be 
troubled with washout ditches that you cannot 
cross. Your meadow will not want much for 
manure as the hillside wash, caught in the grass, 
will always supply it. If the field is in grass it 
can be cut with the balance of the field, and I 
think it would be a blessing to have the swales 
crossable rather than to have them full of wash- 
outs, over which neither mower, binder, or wag- 
on can safely cross. 

Should you need tile nearer the summit, you 
must have a stone dam across the hollow and 
have your outlet in this stone dam. You can 
build your outlet of stone, if you have good fiat 
stone. If not, use brick or jointed sewer pipe. 

BRANCH DRAINS. 

Now we will go to the branches. You should 
have tile that are prepared with junctions. If 
you have not, pick a round hole in your tile just 
the size of the branch tile. Cover all cracks well 
with pieces of tile, then cover up so as to prevent 
them from being moved. Remember that a 
three inch tile will hold two and one fourth 
times as much as a two inch tile. Tile are to 
each other as the squares of their diameters. 



BRANCH DRAINS. 27 

Yet you may often add several two inch branch- 
es to a three inch tile, as a three inch tile is es- 
timated to drain the water that falls on two 
and one fourth acres. 

Now we will go to the upper end of the tile 
drain. How shall we finish it? AVhy, go to 
work and let the last tile into a small brick 
chimney just as you would put a stove pipe into 
a chimney. Let this chimney come as near to 
the top as you can so that the plow will not dis- 
turb the top covering bricks. This will let air 
into your tile and the flow will be much better 
than if you shut it up tight with a brick at the 
end tile, which you must do if you do not want 
your tile to fill up at the upper end. Use a 
mixed material, if convenient, for marking, use 
plenty of it. Gravel would be the best to cover 
the chimneys or trunks with. This also marks 
the locality of your tile drain. Right here let 
me say you can tell better where your tile drain 
is than nine-tenths of the men can with a 
surveyor's plot, by simply placing or scattering 
a lot of finely pounded brick or broken white 
dishes or broken crocks. Either will be fine 
enough to not interfere with your mowing ma- 
chine. But you must not shut up the tile that 
enters into the brick chimney. This brick ven- 
tilator must not be laid in mortar, but should 
have a solid bottom of cistern cement, bricks or 
flat stones, slate or glass to keep the crabs from 
shutting up the tile from below. Cover it well 



28 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

with bricks or fiat stone to keep loose dirt out 
of the ventilator. 

These pieces should be put on the drain when 
shut up. They will mix into the soil and your 
tile drain will always be marked, even should 
your surveyor's plot be lost or burned. Gravel 
will also do to mark the locality of your drain. 
Mounds of earth will do for some time but will 
not always be a landmark. Never fail to mark 
the place where you stopped laying tile, as you 
may want to commence there some time, and if 
you mark it well you can find it in twenty years 
as well as the day you marked it; and it will 
never interfere in the least in your w orking the 
soil. 

Some mark with stakes that rot away soon ; 
some mark with stones and they are always in 
the way. I will here say if you start at the out- 
let of your tile drain you will have no trouble in 
marking it to the upper end by using broken 
bricks as a mark, by placing about oue-half 
bushel of broken bricks into your tile ditch when 
you are covering the tile. These should be 
placed into the ditch at each curve and then you 
can stretch a line from one lot of brick to the 
other and thus you will never be at a loss to 
know where your tile drain is, if you should ever 
want to put in a new^ branch. These bricks 
should be pounded so that the largest pieces will 
not be larger than walnuts, and should be 
placed so as to show on top of the ditch and 



LENGTH AND SIZE OF TILE. 29 

need not be placed deeper than one foot, as that 
would be deep enough to make a good mark. 
These pieces might be mixed for a couple of feet 
along the ditch. But be sure you put a good 
mark at the end of vour drain, as it is for your 
convenieuce to know at any time where you laid 
the last tile of every drain. 

LENGTH AND SIZE OF TILE. 

Tile used in deep hollows should be longer than 
one foot. Thev should be two feet lono-. In 
Switzerland they use three foot tile. Tile used 
in such places should have joints to connect 
them that they may not be displaced by a heavy 
freshet in the spring. They should have the 
stone dam protection as afore described. 

Where tile are expected to discharge quite a 
lot of water very rapidly they should be corre- 
spondingly larger, many times twice the ordi- 
nary size, and where it is shed rapidly from hills, 
we say three times as large as would be required 
to carry the wajber from flats. 

Again, if you are in a flat valley where water 
is carried away in a ditch, your tile that leads 
into these ditches must be considerable larger 
than if they emptied into a natural living- 
stream, because floods may be kept up much 
longer in some than in others. But in ditches 
having little fall, water flows slowly ; hence your 
tile entering in such ditches must be larger than 
usual, for wdien the water begins to fall in 3^our 



30 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

ditch then your tile will do their work quickly. 
This is the reason why many persons who put in 
small tile have to take them up and put in 
larger. In such cases try to get some informa- 
tion from those that have tiled in your locality 
— the size of tile, the depth put down, and the 
working effects. View their position, compare 
your situation and you may act safely and wise- 

i.y. 

If you get your tile drains with a perfect grade 
as before described, then use the best tile you 
€an get. They should be smooth and even in- 
side. If they have any rough spots inside, cut 
them out with an old file ground to an edge, or 
chisel shaped. Lay the tile with no holes in 
bottom, covering those on top with pieces of 
broken tile. Remember right here to do your 
work right, is to have the satisfaction of enjoy- 
ing a reward for life, and posterity for time to 
come, for having done a good workin good faith. 

Many swamps require drains to be put around 
the entire swamps and through the body of the 
same wherever there are depressions that hold 
water. 

Winter springs require a complete surround- 
ing of tile, and many times, numerous branches 
through. Tough clay that is inclined to winter- 
spring can be helped much by tihng, but I have 
one on my farm that did me little good until I 
used phosphates, after which it brought me the 
best crop that I ever had. I have raised three 



LENGTH AND SIZE OF TILE. 31 

crops on this land with phosphates, which have 
yielded better than the heaviest manuring ever 
did on it. But I will not say that if I had ap- 
plied lime to this sticky, sour, clay soil that it 
would not have had an equal effect to the phos- 
phates. But I must say that the last of the 
three crops was the best of all that I raised, 
with a heav3^ set of clover in the bargain. I can 
say in this case phosphate helped me to raise a 
heavier crop than I. ever was able to raise on 
this land after tiling. 

This was part of a basin leaning to a swamp 
probably afall of from three to five hundred feet 
to the mile. It had sufficient fall to drain any 
soil naturally, but the sticky nature of the soil 
of this water shed I think is now partly dissolv- 
ed with the action of the phosphates^ and I think 
that if I keep stock from tramping it, and plow 
the second crop of clover under, seed and all — 
understand me that I mean to mow that field 
then let the clover come up for seed, and then 
let it cover the ground till spring as a mulch then 
plow it under for a spring crop, as there is some 
blue grass that must be worked out, and a 
spring crop is the best for that purpose, before 
sowing to wheat. Whereas, should I plow it for 
wheat without first killing out the blue grass, it 
would choke the wheat out and so take posses- 
sion of the ground and make it impossible to 
raise a crop of clover, and this would entirely 
shut off all crop rotation, as the blue grass 



32 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

does not do much more than to fool stock for a 
while in the spring, and then when the dry sea- 
son of the year comes it is like the darkey's flea, it 
''aint thar," and yet when it once has got full 
possession of the soil it drives out all other 
grass plants ; and I think it also helps to bind 
such soil to make it drain less instead of loosening 
it. 

Here let me say if you want to drain your soil 
perfectly, let plenty of clover help you to keep 
the soil loose. It is the best of help, and it is 
help that pays you. 

See here, if you are troubled with plantain all 
you need to do is to sow heavily with clover and 
timothy. Sow your timothj^ about midwinter, 
your clover in February or early in March, re- 
membering to sow heavily. But don't let your 
timothy grow for a year or two after your clov- 
er is run out as that will more than discount 
the good the clover has done towards loosening 
the soil and assisting in drainage. 

Some pec pie think they must have timothy 
hay anyhow if it will even rob the farm, just be- 
cause they have and because hay buyers all want 
it. Cut your clover when it is in full red bloom, 
not when the heads are half brown, as the rule 
of old is. If vou mow when in full red bloom you 
get all the sweet in your hay that the grass will 
ever have. If the weather is rainy, on the after- 
noon of the first clear day, mow if thin, and in the 
afternoon of the next day rake into winrows. 



LENGTH AND SIZE OF TILE. 31 

But should Your grass be very heavy you must 
ted it on the forenoon of the second day. But 
I have never needed to ted when it made even 
two and one-half tons per acre. I always raked 
it the afternoon of the second day, turned it next 
morning' after the dew was off. 1 turned it over 
so as to bring- all loose scattering jjarts of the 
winrows into good shape for pitching ; tlien I 
proceed to haul it to the barn as fast as I can. 

If you have any old hay or straw take it and 
cover your new hay every evening with a thin 
layer of your old hay as it helps your old hay 
and keeps the cold night air from condensing all 
evaporation on your new hay. 

You had better cloSe all openings about your 
barn except the ventilator and keep the cool air 
of the night from condensing the rising vapor 
upon the new hay. Sometimes you can haul in 
your hav the second dav if the weather is verv 
drying. Treat your hay thus and you will have 
the best kind of hay, and you don't need to feed 
any grain in moderate work and when not work- 
ing, need feed no grain at all. I thus speak as I 
know. There is an opinion and a misleading 
one, too, that clover hay is not equal to" timothy 
hay. It is even better, and with clover and 
timothy thickly sown you can at least make 
your hay half 3^our ideal. If you sow mammoth 
clover it will ripen or bloom when the timothyis 
at its best. Why I have said so much about 
clover hay is to demonstrate to you the value of 



34 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

clover hay from ray own experience, as a fodder, 
and the necessity of clover raisins: to brino; 
your soil into the best draining condition possi- 
ble. It loosens the soil. Now don't think you 
must mow your grass to the ground, but leave 
good stubbles, for you cannot make your stock 
eat much of butts of the hay, and often they 
leave much of the stems, and would about as 
soon eat so much wood. *Why not leave it on 
the field where it will help to cover your soil and 
keep it loose. Here let me tell you don't cut 
your wheat Ioav but cut it high, and leave all the 
stubbles on the field you can, to cover the ground 
and keep it loose and make your soil drain bet- 
ter. Mow your stubbles, weeds and all, down 
soon after the wheat is taken from the field. It 
will help your clover and help to loosen your 
soil and store nitrogen and help to tile drain 
your farm. This is wdiy I say so much on this. 

DEPTH OF TILE DRAINS. 

You may want to know to what depth I put 
tile down. I put some tile down three feet eight 
years ago and there are some pl&.ces along that 
drain that the water does not get down to the 
tile in time to produce potatoes, right over the 
drain. Nor does it drain until most of the water 
has flown down the drain several rods. Now all 
that I will have to do in that drain is to dig it 
open down to the tile, and fill the drain with 
gravel and bring branches of smaller tile nearer 



DEPTH OF TILE DRAINS. - 35 

the surface and then they will drain more rapidly 
as they will be above the sticky clay bed and 
then there will be no trouble about all the nec- 
essary drainage. Could I not get gravel to fill 
those drains after digging them open I should 
resort to the brick trunk as before described, 
and thus I would bring the drainage nearer to 
the surface. The occasional gravel fill or the 
brick trunk placed in those places will help you 
to drain three feet deep even in such sticky soil. 
It is very seldom that you find more than forty 
feet of it on one drain, though in the drain 
mentioned it ^vas probably one hundred and 
twenty-five feet, along that drain in several 
places. You will fiucl that in making a three 
feet drain the last foot of depth costs as much 
labor as the first two in many places. They put 
tile onh^ two feet deep and it proves very good. 
And in some place where they have a very close, 
sticky clav soil, tile are put about twenty inches 
deep on an average, and the^^ say that is the 
right depth for them. From experience of my 
own, I can say there are some places along my 
drains if I did not open the drains and make 
gravel fills, I am satisfied that there would never 
be such perfect drainage on some of the drains 
as there are on others where the soil is more 
porous. But let your drain be where it will, in 
filling, don't put in straw, but spade the surface 
of the sides of your ditches on the tile first then 
put oil the ground thrown out of the ditch to fill 



36 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

the balance. It will then be on top of the ground 
where frost, sun and rain can dissolve the 
sticky clay; and by spading down the surface 
you have a loose mold on your tile, and you 
have widened the sides of your ditch by giving 
it slope to the tile. 

There is another rule by which you can govern 
yourself as to the depth that you should lay your 
tile with a prospect of their working well or work- 
ing perfectly. That is this : the nearer you are to 
a running stream of considerable size, where there 
is quite a considerable gTcivel or drift deposit and 
you want to drain only an occasional basin or 
swale, then you can go as deep as your outlet will 
let you, or as deep as you wish to go. Remember 
to keep an even grade at all times. Should you 
have much fall, it is equally as important, for 
then it will save washouts in floods. But for such 
places, longer tile with joints and stone dams over 
the tile to break washes, are neccessary. Right 
here remember as you go up the stream and where 
water flows slower, the condition of the soil is 
often not as good for drainage as lower down. 
Then you must not put 3^our tile as deep, or you 
can put them as deep if you make the gravel fills 
often as necessary. But you must bear in mind 
to have the same effectual drainage that you 
are able to get further down stream, you will have 
to exercise greater care in constructing your tile 
drains. The further you go up stream the greater 
care you must take, and on the summit you 



DEPTH OF TILE DRAINS. 37 

should first secure a good outlet, then keep as 
deep as water will flow out of the outlet of the 
drain. But if there is a very stickj^claj soil, you 
€an not drain as deep as further down the stream. 
But, sometimes, on the summit there are some 
very porous flats of clay loam that would drain 
much deeper than one would think they would. 
Such loams have sometimes a mixture of bog or 
some irony formation that seems to have a grit 
in it when the spade is passing- through it. Such 
soil generally drains well. Let me say that tile 
draining, well done, is done for life, and to do it 
well, the first thing is to have a good outlet. 
After you begin to lay your tile or are ready to 
lay, you should first lay a good brit-k outlet large 
enough to carry the water of the tile. Lay these 
bricks in cement mortar. These bricks should be 
burned hard enough to be frost proof. Your 
bdck outlet should be several feet long, and clos- 
ed over the tile solidly. You should place a wire 
screen in your outlet to prevent animals from en- 
tering the tile drain. Why 1 say you should lay 
your brick in cement mortar is that nothing can 
displace them easily and spoil 3^our outlet which 
would be a damage to the whole drain. 

Some make their outlets of sewer pipe, using 
several pieces. This will be all right if you can 
hold them to their places and no water dams in- 
to them to freeze them to pieces. If you use such 
you will have to hold them with stone and cover 
them so they are fully protected, or you will 



38 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

have trouble. I have used woocleu boxes for out- 
lets but they cave in before 3^ou are aware,' as 
some side or the top will rot and down goes 
your trunk, and it requires much time to look 
after them and keep them in good repair, and if 
made of good lumber they cost quite a considera- 
ble. So I think for me there shall be no more 
wooden outlets. 

WHAT TO USE TO DRAIN OR UNDERDRAIN OUR SOIL. 

The very best burned tile that we can get. 
Glazed tile are the best, as they generally have a 
smooth inside, which is very important to have^ 
as it lets the water flow more freely than it will 
in an ordinar^^ tile, as they are somewhat rough 
and retard the flow of water very much ; and 
many tile have blisters inside which must 
be cut out before laying. You had better throw 
such defective tile away rather than put them in. 
Without cleaning they will only choke your 
ditch or reduce the capacity of the drain. Some 
say rough tile let w^ater through the body of the 
tile. I assure you it would be very poor drain- 
age you would get were it not for the joints you 
get in laying one foot tile. AVhat water passes 
through the joints of a tile drain is about all you 
can expect to pass into the tile as the flue par- 
ticles of soil seal all openings in the tile structure. 
It might do for filtering purposes but for noth- 
ing else. Then don't let the man with his rough 
tile persuade you that they are as good or bet- 
ter than glazed tile are. 



SIZE OF TILE. 39 

SIZE OE TILE. 

What size tile shall we use? As we are on the 
summit we know to what extent our tile have to 
work ; but as we go down stream further we have 
to contend with more water, for that Avhich falls 
on the ground to be drained, and that which 
falls on ground above encumbers the capacity of 
tile and the outlet of a drain in many cases can- 
not work as soon as it would farther up the 
stream, as the water from above may keep open 
ditches or even running streams fall for several 
days, and in such case you wdll necessarilly need 
larger tile than where you have a free and un- 
obstructed outlet. I will try and give 3^ou a 
table that will suit for most of the ordinary out- 
lets. 

TABLES OF CAPACITY OF TILE AS OUTLETS OF CON- 
NECTING BRANCHES. 

2 inch tile drains, 1 acre. 

3 " " '' 2^ acres. 

4 '< *<■ '< 4 

5 " " " 6% 

6 " " " 9 

7 " " '' 12K" 

8 " " " 16 
10" '' " 25 

12 " " " 36 

14 '^ u u 49 

15 " " " 56 

16 " " " 64 

18 " '' " 81 



40 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

24 " " " 143 " 

30 " " " 250 

36 " " " 324 

This will be very near the capacity oi the tile, 
though condition of locality ma^^ change the es- 
timate and make it too high or too low. 

THE SURVEY. 

Is it necessary to have a survey to locate a 
^ood tile drain? No, not unless there are sever- 
al disagreeing parties who have land along the 
route of the drain, or want to drain into the 
same. But I want to say to you, you had better 
compromise the matter and make the drain 
without a survey, as the expense of making 
the drain will have to be made after all 
contending is over. Let each one do his or her 
share and it will be a lasting good to all con- 
cerned. If you cannot agree then try for an 
arbitration and agree to stand by the decision. 
Have such agreement in writing placed before 
the arbitrators, signed by all parties concerned, 
agreeing to accept the decision of arbitration ; 
have arbitrators to put agreement on record, 
also their decision, recording the same. Then if 
any party wishes to engage in constructing the 
ditch it may be necessary to have a surveyor, 
if there is still some dissatisfaction, to set each 
share apart with depth of grade. This will be 
about the best way of disposing of the work. 
Then have the surveyor to make a plot of each 



THINGS TO AVOID. 41 

man's share or ^-ive each man a separate plot of 
his share. Thus you will have the plot of your 
own construction at hand always to refer to. 

The division of the drain can also be made by 
the arbitrator if all parties are agreed to have 
them stake it off. But if they say each one shall 
do so much work, it must be surveyed. 

WHAT SHALL WE AVOID IN TILE DRAINING ? 

The first thino; to avoid is a willow tree, the 
roots of which will sometimes reach a tile drain 
four rods from the tree. Elm trees are equally 
as bad ; white and black ash also are bad to 
choke tile drains by sending; their fine roots into 
the tile drain at the joints. Almost any tree is 
that grows well on wet land, as they seem to 
naturally seek the water level and they can find 
this in the bottom of a tile drain. Right hereto^ 
depart a little from the text, such trees are very 
dangerous about foundation walls of buildings. 
They often root in among the morter of such 
walls and crowd the stones out of their place in 
the w^all. Fruit trees are not liable to do this 
so much as the trees of the forest. Fruit trees 
are not likely to injure tile drains as they do not 
seek after a water level, but rather prefer to re- 
main in a dry soil. There is no instance of any 
trouble in tiling an orchard to my knowledge. I 
have tiled within ten feet of a row of apple trees 
along my orchard to reach my garden with a tile 
drain and have never had any trouble with that 



42 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

drain in seven years, and I know where drains 
have been put in not more than five years ago 
that were put that near to ash trees that they 
had to be taken up and were found full of roots. 
Where you have to pass through timber of this 
kind, you should never use less than five inch 
tile. If the outlet is kept open it will then be 
too dry for them to send their roots into the tile. 

WHAT WE SHOULD REMEMBER IN TILE DRAINING. 

We should first look up the true line of the 
main drain, measure it and level it to have it all 
correctly proved the best line and the least ex- 
pensive. A httle time spent in overlooking the 
situation is never lost. 

We next should remember to grade our ditch- 
es. The first thing we do is in cutting the soil 
afway with a, short spade, it is much easier done 
by scooping out the loose dirt and see that the 
water all flows freely. Then you can make your 
drain of an exact depth. 

Next remember to lay your tile of the same 
size first, and take the shrunken ones of that 
size and lay them back and use them up the 
drain where you want smaller tile, as to lay 
three inch tile and when you have one burned 
very hard that is only two and one-half inches 
you would reduce your three inch tile to two and 
one-half by using the shrunken tile. 

Lay all tile as close as possible. Leave no un- 
covered cracks. Leave no holes in bottom of 



THINGS TO REMEMBER. 43 

drain. Remember that tile laid in straight lines 
work best. Remember that sinks or miry swamps, 
or quicksands must have long narrow boards 
that are good and solid laid in the bottom be- 
fore tile is laid in any soft and bottomed ditches. 
Tile should be more than one foot in length. In 
draining a swamp all soff and miry places must 
be tiled to save the crop and beasts. 

Don't use straw, hay or corn stocks to cover 
tile. They will dam the water from the tile. 

Cover your tile with the surface soil and then 
with bottom soil. Remember to use plentj^ of 
bricks or broken tile to mark- your drains. 
Broken tile of good quality can often be had for 
hauling from the tile kiln. ]\Iark deep and well, 
as good marking will make you a good drain 
plot, one to last forever. 

Remember, too, that to have the best drain- 
age your tile must be laid perfectly and have 
ventilation or air at the upper end to flow freely. 

Remember to have the best flow you must 
have good smooth tile inside, though some rough 
material mav sometimes be stronger than the 
smooth is. If you lay rough tile, clean the in- 
side. But if you can get good glazed tile they 
are the best. The writer trusts that jou will be 
able to drain successfully after reading this 
column. 

HOW TO LOCATE OLD TILE DRAINS. 

You can also locate your old tile drains and 



44 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

mark themin this way very closely. All* you 
have to do is to start near the outlet, just as 
soon after a rain as you see the plowed ground 
drying off over your old tile drains. Take a line, 
measure across the dry line of ground over the 
tile. Take one-half of the width and place a 
mark of about a half bushel of pounded bricks 
into the ground at this point, then go up this 
dry line to the first curve. Put in brick again 
after measuring as before. You should also put 
in some brick above and belowthe curve, making 
measurements every time. Go up your tile drain 
in this way and I will assure you that you will 
never vary more than a foot or so if you take 
correct measurements. Go up this line as far as 
you see dry ground. Mark at the upper end 
with several lots of brick, only a rod or so apart. 
This will give you a direct line to approach your 
tile drain from above ; if you start above the 
drain and come down to the drain on this line, 
you will surely find your tile and your work is 
never lost. But if your drain don't work you 
cannot expect to mark them all right. But as 
far as they work all right you can do the mark- 
ing all right, and some times where they only 
work partly by this you can also tell above 
ground where your tile works right. Now if you 
start out take your measure and stakes and you 
may mark the tile location first with stakes, 
then follow with pounded brick and shovel to 
mark where stakes mark the drain. When you 



HOW TO LOCATE OLD TILE DRAINS. 45 

first begin to see tlie dry line on your plowed 
ground then is the best time to mark your tile 
drains. 

Eemember that a tile drain ever so well laid, if 
its outlet is not looked after and kept open it will 
not work well. 

Remember that the straighter your tile are laid 
in line, the better the flow of the water. 

Remember that it is cheaper to have a good 
tile drain than to lose your crop on untiled land, 
or in some cases to only have half a crop. 

Remember it is cheaper to have tile drains in 
your swamps, than to swamp stock. 
• Remember it is cheaper to have tile drains than 
^ have your field full of plowed out ditches to run 
your machinery over and break them, as the 
monej^ lost in this way would often make your 
tile drains. 

Remember it is cheaper to make tile drains than 
to have your field full of plowed out ditches and 
have your stock roll in and die. 

Remember a sheep lost in this way, if sold would 
buy many tile. 

Remember a good colt or a good horse lost in 
this way would be something ; if sold would go far 
towards tiling a farm. 

Remember, if you could not sell that horse from 
your farm, that to have used the monej^ that was 
required to buy another horse, would have gone 
far towards tiling your farm, and would have 
saved your horse, saved crossing ditches and 



46 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

breaking your machinery and vexation ; instead 
of having nice, even fields to reap over and an 
abundant harvest to reap. 

Keraember that if you must have field ditches, 
take a road grader and make them. They will 
not wash out like plow ditches, but they are still 
dangerous to stock if made very deep. 

Kemember that too deep spading occasionall}^ 
will make a soft slushy bottom to lay your tile 
in, and your tile will never work perfectly. Have 
Sj perfectly solid bottom, evenly graded and you 
have a good job. 

Kemember, oh remember last of all, to see to 
it that all your tile are laid right and never let 
job work, but better pay by the day and have 
3^our tile all laid an even depth. If tile are laid 
in a ditch and water partly covers them, they 
will be likel^^ to fill up to the water, and you pay 
for work half done. Don't let tile be covered be- 
fore you see them, if possible. 

Remember it is when you have no places on 
your farm that are too wet to produce any crop 
that it is then that by good culture you can bring 
your farm to the highest state of productiveness 
of your locality. 



CHAPTER ON DITCHING TOOLS. 



The numbers designating' the different drain- 
ing tools, and the numbers of the descriptive 
paragraphs correspond. 

1. Surface Spade Shovel, to be used in start- 
ing and grading water level. 

2. Flat Cleaner should be used in grading to 
first water level. 

3. Round Cleaner, to be used in absence of 
Flat Cleaner. 

4. Push and Pull Cleaner, to be used in the 
bottom of drain to level tile drain bottom be- 
fore laying tile. 

5. Square Cleaner, to be used in lajdng Square 
Sewer pipe. 

6. Flat Cleaner, to be used in removing all 
ground that falls .back into ditch, and in making 
the first level. Also to be used in marshy, 
swampy land where you have to Isij boards in 
the bottom of the ditch before laving the tile. 

7. Drain Spade, the most useful in all drains 
except where roots interfere. 

8. Ordinary Ditching Spade, to be used in 
rooty ground ; also very good in swamps where 
roots may occur and you have to lay boards in 
the bottom. 



48 PRACTICAL TILE DKAINING. 

9. Post Hole Spade, not wanted for ditching*. 

10. The Ordinary Spade is not very^ood in 
ditchino;. 

11. The Ordinary Shovel, is not of much use 
in ditching. • 

12. Tosumall up, about all that is needed for 
willing hands is a Surface Spade, Shovel and 
Bound Push and Pull Cleaner. This is about all 
generally needed except where roots interfere. 
Then use the Ditch Spade. 

The Ditch Spade is intended for open ditches. 
In buying those tools get the best and lightest. 
You can get the weight on in mud, and clumsy, 
heavy tools are tiresome. I give you this to 
tell you what to get and don't let your dealers 
put no you other tools than those recommended. 

Hussey, Binns & Co., Linard, Pittsburgh, Pa., 
have favored me with these plates and I am 
thankful to them. With these illustrations I 
think I can tell you what you want and what 
you don't want. 



DITCHING TOOLS. 



49 



No. 1. 



No. 2. 



No. 3. 



No. 4. 




50 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

No. 5. No. 6. No. 7. 



No. 8. 




1 



No. 9. 



No. 10. 



No. 11, 



^^iJUlUUIUIiilliU'"' 



CLOVER FOR FERTILITY. 



The importance of frequent clover seedino;s is 
too often overlooked by many farmers, especial- 
ly if they do not grow clover seed themselves. 
Clover is not directly a money crop. It may be 
sold, but we pity the farmer who grows it for 
this purpose. Its best use is for feeding to stock 
on the farm, making ma,nure that is worth near- 
ly as much as its price in the market. Thus con- 
siderable time is required to bring a clover crop 
into money. Capital also is needed to purchase 
or even to breed the stock to be fed. Thousands 
of farmers every spring neglect sowing clover 
seed, or sow it in such small amounts as not to 
get much benefit from it. They do not have 
money to spare to buy clover seed, when there is 
such indefinite prospect of getting it back the 
same season. Probably in nothing is lack of 
capital in farming more injurious than in pre- 
venting frequent and liberal seeding of clover. 
Going into debt for clover seed is not necessary. 
A good seeding costs not much more than a dol- 
lar an acre. Nothing else comes as cheap as 
this, and nothing costing twice as much keeps 
fertility as clover does. 

Ten to twelve pounds of clover seed are enough 



CLOVER FOR FERTILITY. 53 

if the soil is in ^ood condition as to tilth. This 
will give more plants on a square foot than can 
grow to full size, but it is better to seed thickly, 
so as to suppress weeds. If the soil is very weedy 
it is better to sow a peck per acre than to have 
partial failure anywhere, and this at present 
prices might cost fl.25. Before midsummer 
this clover seed will have attained a growth 
more than enough to pay the cost of seed. It 
will usuallv pay to sow clover seed at any- 
thing less than |8 or flO a bushel on spring 
grain, whose stubble is to be plowed for wheat 
in the fall. It is not merely the bulk of clover 
growth that makes this pay. The clover has, if 
successful, suppressed many weeds, and it is 
worth much more as a fertilizer then they could 
be. 

Let this clover grow through two seasons, 
and how much has it benefited the soil in that 
time? The roots have pushed into the subsoil 
so far as the vigor of the plant and richness of 
soil above will allow. Successive clover crops 
penetrate the soil deeper, until it will in drained 
land reach down to shallow drains two or two 
and one-half feet deep. It is for this reason bet- 
ter to put underdrains down three feet at least, 
so that successive clover crops may not finally 
reach into them and choke them. No permanent 
iniurv is likelv to occur to drains from clover 
roots. As soon as the plant dies the root quick- 
ly dissolves, and is washed out by next winter's 



54 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 

or spring's floods. The track of the clover roob 
in the subsoil makes a water course for surplus 
water to filter through to the drain. Clover and 
underdraining thus each help the other. 

If all small grains were seeded with clover at 
every crop there would soon be no complaint of 
the scarcity of manure to fertilize the farm. If a 
part of all the manure applied is used in grow- 
ing clover, it will so rapidly increase the capacity 
of the farm to keep stock that there need be no 
lack of manure thereafter. Without such clover 
seeding it is impossible to grow grain crops with- 
out making the land sterile, even though com- 
mercial fertilizers be ever so abundantly used. 
With clover seeding as often as possible, so much 
of all manure is returned to the soil that it can 
not help increasing in fertility and this too with- 
out plowing under any part of the clover crop 
except its roots. 

So far as possible, farmers should grow clover 
seed. In growing the second crop after the first 
has been cut for hay, the grain in soil fertility 
and also in the depth of the clover root is great- 
er than during any previous equal length of 
time that the plant is growing. Part of the 
clover seed is generally dropped on the ground 
in gathering it, but this is by no means wasted. 
Land where clover seed has been often grown be- 
comes so well seeded that it will grow a crop of 
clover every time the field is plowed for several 
years thereafter. Farmers sometimes say that 



CLOVER FOR FERTILITY. 55 

such land is "natural to clover," which is a mis- 
take if it means that clover otows without seed. 
But such laud is always regarded as among the 
best, because it has long been in the hands of 
farmers w^ho appreciate the value of clover. — The 
American Cultivator. 



V 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Benefits of Tile Drainirigj - - 3 

To Find Depth and Grade of Drains, - 12 

Draining Swamps, - - 14 

How To Do Tiling, - - 19 
Covering Tile, . - - 21, 27 

How To Make Trunks, - - 22 

Draining Hollows, - - 24 

Branch Drains, - - 26 

Ventilating Drains, - - 27 

Length and Size of Tile, - - 29 

Depth of Drains, - - 34 

Outlets, - - - 37 

What to Use for Drains, - - 38 

Size of Tile, ... 39 

The Survey, ... 40 

What to Avoid, - - 41 

What to Kemember, - - 42 

How to Locate Old Drains, - - 43 

Ditching Tools, - - 47 



/v- tv 



^^ 



